This time via Ethel, the very same Ethel who tagged me which lead to the three day post on things I love beginning with double u not double ya. Assignments are not inspiration so this is not about that. Go visit her. (She keeps popping in and out so just go ahead and go visit her if she isn’t home today she will be soon, just poke around her place and you will find some interesting things.)
But what, pray tell, has she inspired me to, you ask Dear Reader.
To fast.
You may by all means freak out and start quoting verses about not telling people that you’re fasting and that’s fine, I’m a big girl, I can take criticism, really I can. And you may very well be correct on this, my motives may be to flaunt my fast, but then again I tell you I pray and read scripture, I tell you about the other spiritual disciplines in my life so if I flaunt those I am no worse this week by flaunting my fast.
Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline, talks about how we don’t, as a church, fast much anymore, (the book was written over twenty years ago and I would say that that has changed slightly.) He says that that presents problems in that we often do not know what to expect or how to go about it. So I figure I will share with you my experience and perhaps you can gain some insight toward fasting, or toward me, which ever comes first I suppose.
You might say that this fast is not strictly spiritual, although you know how I feel about that Dear Reader, everything I do I do unto the Lord, no secular vs sacred here. But I do need to clean my physical body out as well as a little spring cleaning for my soul.
I can’t tell if I am coming down with a cold or struggling with the effects of allergens encountered over the weekend helping our good friend consolidate his two businesses into one. Lots of paint fumes (oil base) and dust and pinesol at a restaurant. Tuesday morning I noticed I had a walnut sized gland just in back of my chin. Crud in my head that the netty pot isn’t getting. So a good pitch of the system and hopefully I will be able to tackle all that I want to this spring. I will once again be restored to superhuman levels.
So the fast:
Mine is different from the one Ethel is doing, you may have heard of hers, I believe she is doing the Master Cleanse. I do not know what all is involved in it but I have always drank hot water with lemon juice when I fast. But the Master Cleanse concoction got me to thinking about some things I might like to put in with my hot water and lemon.
Manuka honey, lemon of course, Cayenne powder (in the baggy with the blue clip), and Beet Root powder, which gives my hot water and lemon a lovely magenta color. (Yes, I still have my snowmen things about me, it is not spring yet!)
The Manuka honey is new to me. I read about it on Joel Barker’s blog. It is supposed to have terrific antibiotic properties. And my little walnut calls for some antibiotics measures.
Cayenne is a blood purifier and energizer. Cayenne has been a big part of my herbal household but some of those stories are for another post. Trust me it is a life saver literally.
Beetroot Powder is a liver supporter, cleans out the digestive support system, and is good for the head and tinnitus. Among some other groovy properties.
Lemon is terrific, a cleanser and it’s own antibiotic properties, kills stuff that shouldn’t be growing in your bod.
So that’s what is in my nice warm mug.
I’m also taking other supplements and I will discuss them in the days to come over on my other blog, The_Sheet_Diet.
So I’m determined to do a long haul and to not complain while doing so.
But I will say that so far (and it is eleven thirty p.m. the first day) head crud is moving and my head is achey, but I also didn’t have my contacts in all day. The gut is definitely growling and everything reminds me of beautiful foods. So at least I’m not thinking about junk food.
On the less pragmatic side of the fast, I came across this passage and it spoke loudly to me, it comes out of Ezra 8:21-23. He is returning to Jerusalem after Babylonian exile:
“There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, ‘The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.’ So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer. “
There is so much for me in that passage, even though I do not feel I am coming out of exile, or a dry period with God, but always there is the ever present desire to be closer to God. There is much to attend to in this passage. No, I am not headed anywhere except to a cleaner heart, a deeper understanding and more dedicated heart to my “job” of burden baring and praying, with no fear of the journey.
Dear Reader I pray that all is well with you today. That you find a deepening in your understanding of who God is. For one thing, He is, after all, unfathmoble and therefore His depths cannot be plumbed by any man, there will always be more for us to learn and see, and always more mystery laid before us. But we are never alone.
